Ginsburg on the Prospects for Stability in Thailand

Thailand Needs to Talk

Tom Ginsburg

Foreign Policy

June 6, 2014

the Kingdom of Thailand is a constitutional graveyard: In just over 80 years, it's gone through 18 failed constitutions in a carousel of military coups and corrupt civilian governments. And, in recent years, the civilians have likewise been fighting among themselves, pitting the so-called Red Shirt movement, strong in the North and rural areas, against the Yellow Shirts of Bangkok and the South, in an increasingly violent conflict that has destabilized the country. Now, as the smoke clears over mid-May's dramatic coup, Thailand's new military government has suspended the constitution once again. Though the military has been vague regarding specifics, they will put forth a temporary constitution, which will eventually to be followed by something more permanent: Lucky #19.

With the coup itself now behind us we can still hope that the military government may be able to break the vicious cycle once and for all. To make sure the next government sticks, however, the military will have to make a radical departure from tradition. It must resist the urge to implement a military mindset over the drafting of a new constitution. A top-down approach will be likely to poison the process -- and process is everything in constitution writing.During the decades of constitutional upheaval, Thailand's civilian political parties remained relatively weak. This changed when billionaire populist Thaksin Shinawatra arrived on the scene about 15 years ago. Shinawatra and his allies played into the rural sense of exclusion from government, allowing them to win elections time and again -- six since 2001. But lacking a deep tradition of democracy, Thaksin's opponents, including the middle-class, urban Yellow Shirts, have been unwilling to accept the results. In fact, the Yellow Shirts' refusal to accept the 2013 election victory of Thaksin's sister, Yingluck Shinawatra, is precisely what sparked the conflict leading to last month's coup.